It is becoming more difficult for the typical vehicle owner to obtain proper vehicle servicing without expending considerable time driving to a remote location and waiting for the vehicle servicing to be completed. The problem is exacerbated by the sharp reduction in the number of neighborhood full service gas stations and the increased complexity of modern vehicles. The result is often that proper vehicle servicing is postponed or entirely neglected.
Over the years various mobile service units have been proposed for providing necessary vehicle servicing, such as oil change, lubrication, engine tune-up . . . , etc., at locations convenient to the vehicle owner such as at a parking lot or other place where owners ordinarily leave their vehicles. Thus the general idea is that the service station comes to the vehicle as opposed to the vehicle going to the service station. One of the problems with such mobile units was that the work area was open thus making them unsuitable for use in inclement weather. For further information on the structure and operation of such units, reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,765,938 and 4,724,875.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,845 to Bellas et al. shows a mobile service station trailer having a roof and sides which can be repositioned at outward locations to increase the area within the trailer for a service attendant to work. More specifically, the sides of the trailer have swingable side portions, pivotally attached at their upper and lower ends, respectively. The sides also have a door section which has a hinge portion disposed in a vertical plane, so that the door can be pivoted outwardly, and a collapsible folding door section can be installed to complete the outward disposition of the sides. However, the width of the vehicle that can be driven onto the trailer is limited so small trucks, vans and large automobiles may not be able to be accommodated. Of course, various state and Federal laws limit the width of a trailer which can be towed on public roads and highways.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,224 to Moody is directed to a trailer having outer rail portions which can be moved outwardly in a horizontal plane by virtue of telescoping members to increase the width of the trailer permitting accommodation of large farm machinery. U.S. Pat. No. 3,913,934 to Koehn et al. also discloses a variable width trailer for farm or construction machinery.